I feel the need for speed

Has the Web improved your life? It sure has mine! This transformation has happened with a sneaky swiftness. It boggles my mind but microfilm is where everyone turned for answers before Google and the World Wide Web. Most computers received information over a slow 14.4 modem ten years ago. I've been stuck at 28.8 ever since I have had a computer only because I had no other internet access other than from an old telephone line. This week I installed a 512 satitlite connection. No going back to a dial up connection for me. The more I use this broad band connection I have trouble remembering that the net existed at speeds of 28k.
Now days kids start Instant IM sometime between their first Mama and Dada. Thanks to the web we can buy a car, trade stocks or even date without leaving our easy chair. The net has a good and bad side. It is a shame Osama bin Laden is in our electronic neighborhood but it is a price worth paying for the web where we can learn and have access to all the worlds knowledge no mater how much money we have. Where anybody can think their own thoughts and enrich those thoughts with all that's come before them. That's a world worth taking a risk for.
My new satitlite connection sure beats the old dial up method I had been using for five years and it sure beats microfilm.

The Lost Week

I am one of those supremely lucky people who get to set their own working hours. These hours can vary wildly. Most days start between 5:15 and 6:00 am with a cup of coffee for breakfast, I will answer e mail, read the early morning news on the computer and be out the door by 8:30 on the days I have work scheduled for that day. My work day may last from 2 to 6 hours but never more than that and even with those short hours I only work 3 or 4 days a week.
The only disadvantage about not working regular hours or a 5 day work week, is that one never feels quite finished. There is no punching the clock, no sense of a leisurely weekend or even a single day holiday looming ahead. Although my pace is less intense than most people's, I nonetheless find myself working in dribs and dribs 364 days a year.
At the end of the week I do not expect to be filled with self congratulation for my accomplishments. When the weekend arrives I have laid in enough supplies so I don't need to leave the house if I don't want to. I put my butt snugly in a chair and begin watching a half dozen sporting events, jumping from one to the next so I don't miss any of the action. I don't know how many years of my life I've spent watching sports on TV. I am lucky I don't care about tennis or hockey or I would have had to come out of semi retirement and take full retirement a decade ago. I suppose I could have used the time to learn the guitar or maybe a foreign language but I can always do those things in my next life, it's time for Kick Off.
I used to think I might have an addiction to watching sports on TV but never once did I ever try to fight it. I just relax every weekend letting the sporting events sweep over me. I even get a tear in my eye every time the Star Spangled Banner is sung. That tear dose not come from my love of country but from the last two words of the Star Spangled Banner, "Play Ball"
Let the games begin and may the best man or team win and oh yes, thank God for free over the air TV.

Just put the shovel in my hands

The US Supreme Court is hearing the case of the right for Doctors to prescribe a lethal overdose for a dying patient. Advocates for this call it physician assisted dying. Opponents call it suicide or murder.
Americans are divided on when life begins or ends. Too many people continue treating death as if it is an option instead of a reality. It is ok if the government hides the coffins of dead soldiers returning from Iraq and tries to censor pictures of floating corpses in New Orleans. These actions are done out of respect for the dead and their families. Perhaps! But it only perpetuates the fantasy of deathless death which is a hallmark of a blind reality where too many spend their time.
Everybody wants to go to heaven but no one wants to die, but die we do. We all want to die with dignity without pain and surrounded by loved ones. I surely don't want to burden my family with expensive yet useless medical treatments nor do I want them to be ridden with guilt or shame from wondering whether they did enough or pulled the plug too soon. This will be impossible for them with out the acceptance of deaths inevitability and the reality that even if we take care of ourselves we can't live forever.
For almost all of history death has always appeared clean and certain. A person's heart, lungs, and brain all had to quit at the same time. But in the last half century death has been transformed. Ventilations, dialysis, organ transplants, and intensive care have made it possible for people to no longer move from living to dead.
A simple criteria for death comes from one of my favorite movies, The Wizard Of OZ. When the house lands on the Wicked Witch of the East, the Munchkin Mayor doesn't want to make the decision if the witch is really dead. He thinks she might not be really dead and could spring back to life. The Mayor calls in the Coroner to verify that the Wicked Witch of the East is Morally, Ethically, Espiritually, Physcially, Absolutely, Positively, Undeniably, and Reliably dead. The Coroner proclaims " She not only merely dead she is really most sincerely dead ". Notice it still takes both really and sincerely to finish the job. If I had been writing that script my next line for the coroner would have been " Boys get your shovels "
I want the shovel in my hands not someone else's hands. I don't want a debate going on about should we go get the shovels, should we start digging or should we stand the shovels up in the corner and maybe we want need them after all. I hope when death comes for me my family will deal with the reality of it and get on with living.

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE the meanest man in Congress

If you are a liberal you will like the Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle. He plays no favorites. He will go after just about anyone, Democrats or Republicans. This week he has Tom DeLay in his cross hairs. Earle has said that DeLay has made it easy for corporations to hijack the electoral process and he is going to put a stop to all the money flowing from corporations into the pockets of politicians.
Tom DeLay is a Rat if I ever saw one. It is kind of ironic that DeLay was an exterminator before being elected to public office. Yes his job as an exterminator was to mix up large vats of rat poison, I guess he did not kill all the Rats! He was kicked out of Baylor for drinking offences and became known as HOT TUB TOM, calling his condo Macho Manor. After being elected to Congress in 1984 he discovered Jesus, what a bunch of crap! Born again he stopped drinking and became a fierce moralist. Once a Rat always a Rat, that's what I say. This is a man who blamed the Columbine school shootings on not guns but day care, birth control for teens and the teaching of evolution. He will twist your arm then pay for a massage to work the kinks out.
What the members of Congress really like about Tom DeLay is his money. Although many fear him, they sure take his money and favors. DeLay once said " I just look mean because my eyes are so squinty ". A mean Rat like Tom DeLay is bound to meet a rat trap he can not evade some day and that trap might just be DA Ronnie Earle. Earle has been after DeLay for three years and even now the rat trap looks a little weak.
It would be a mistake to count DeLay out. I said this Rat would encounter a trap he could not evade I did not say the trap would catch him. Liberals and do gooders are thrilled about this rat trap. DeLay has been getting away with this stuff for years. He has abused the campaign finance system with out any repercussions what so ever. He has controlled his own destiny, but the Washington scandal machine is gearing up and even this Rat may not be cunning enough to get the cheese off the trap and get away to win another election.